'Turnaround year' predicted for CBS Radio

December 05, 2007|By Phil Rosenthal

'Back in Black" isn't just an AC/DC song to CBS boss Les Moonves. It's what he expects from his radio division next year -- numbers going up instead of down.

"I am, for the first time in a while, guardedly optimistic about the potential for growth in '08 for the radio business," Moonves said Tuesday at the 35th Annual UBS Global Media & Communications Conference in New York.

"I am looking forward to seeing a plus sign, being in the black for radio in '08, which would be a relief, and I'm confident that will happen."

CBS Radio has been hurt by the same ad woes that have affected nearly all traditional media outfits in recent years, but that handicap was compounded by the departure of Howard Stern two years ago from more than two dozen CBS stations, including Chicago's WCKG-FM.

Moonves said a rebound began when Dan Mason took over the division in the spring and went "through market by market, changing people where they need to be changed, changing formats where they need to be changed."

Mason, in his own UBS presentation, said 2008 should be "a turnaround year" after flat-to-negative performance since 2005.

For one thing, he said CBS Radio will chase a share of the election-year political ad dollars. "Radio has not historically received its fair share of political dollars. In fact, it's barely gotten any at all," Mason said. "We are aggressively going after this sector, targeting all the top decision-makers to show them the power and impact radio can deliver. ... This is of the highest priority for CBS Radio, and hopefully for our [radio industry] brethren."

Moonves and Mason also spoke of the division's growing Internet presence.

"If I'm lucky enough to be on a radio that only gets a certain number of channels, why, if I don't have to, do I want to direct my audience to this other box that gets millions of channels?" Karmazin reiterated recently during a meeting with the Chicago Tribune's editorial board.

"There was no monetization. ... You look at the earnings reports of all the media companies, newspapers as well, and what they're doing is taking analog dollars and replacing them with digital dimes or nickels. Even though you're growing on your Internet, the amount of money you're making on the Internet side is so small ... you're contributing to your own downfall."

RED-TAPE DELAY: Clear Channel Communications, which had layoffs Monday in Chicago that claimed WGCI-FM 107.5's Victor "The Diz" Blackful and WKSC-FM 103.5's Alexx Dupri among the victims, on Tuesday said its $18.7 billion private-equity buyout by Bain Capital Partners and Thomas H. Lee Capital Partners won't close this year.

The advertising, TV and radio behemoth said its deal, which awaits federal approval, is now expected to close in the first quarter.

SALARY SALT: When salaries were slashed 5 percent at the Arlington Heights-based Daily Herald in August, staffers at the suburban paper were told the cuts were temporary. On Tuesday, however, the reductions were made permanent.

Doug Ray, Paddock Publications' president and chief executive, sought to soften the blow by retroactively reinstating the pay increases that were frozen last summer. But, in a memo to employees, Ray said that extending the wage cut was necessary to offset the continued advertising revenue declines the company expects.

"This was a difficult decision," he wrote, "but one that hopefully will eliminate the need for another round of layoffs and other significant cost cutting."

DEAR DIARY: Arbitron is letting Chicago radio stations know that, contrary to what they may have thought, the date they'll first see numbers from the newfangled Portable People Meter devices is getting pushed back along with the official numbers.

So while data originally was going to be available to them beginning in January, the shift to a fall introduction means the first survey period to which they will have access is July, set to run from June 26 to July 23 and available Aug. 13.